We scan new podcasts and send you the top 5 insights daily.
Instead of trying to force demand during slow periods with a "defibrillator strategy," SurveyMonkey shifted to lower-cost, brand-building activities. This "organic summer" approach seeds the market, maximizing the impact of paid campaigns when demand naturally peaks.
The period from June to July sees a significant dip in performance for B2B content downloads, webinar attendance, and high-ticket consumer sales. This slump, caused by summer travel and school holidays, is comparable only to the major Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons. Marketers should anticipate this and adjust their expectations and strategies accordingly, as it's a difficult time to market for everyone.
For seasonal offers like a gardening course, create a marketing "runway" that begins when customers are in their planning phase. This allows you to build an audience and nurture leads with relevant freebies (e.g., a garden planning guide) before the peak season's real urgency kicks in.
As businesses scale, they often abandon the scrappy, creative tactics that sparked their initial growth. To combat rising ad costs and channel fatigue, intentionally revisit these early, 'unscalable' activities. Re-injecting that fun, different energy can generate the 'free memories' and reach needed for the next growth phase.
This three-week period is one of the worst-performing times for webinar attendance, B2B content downloads, and high-ticket consumer sales. Its performance dip is comparable to Thanksgiving and Christmas, driven by summer travel and school holidays, making it a critical time to adjust marketing expectations and strategy.
A business with seasonal demand can create a full-year content calendar by framing campaigns around the lead-up to, the peak of, and the aftermath of their busy season. This pre, during, and post messaging cycle creates continuous relevance and multiple touchpoints for customers.
HexClad's Q4 strategy isn't about short-term tactics in November. Instead, they view the entire year as a "seed-planting" period. They patiently build brand awareness and consumer trust from January to September, knowing the rewards and revenue will be realized during the holiday season.
Instead of investing heavily in unproven campaign ideas, brands should first test lightweight versions on organic social media. This channel offers instant feedback and numerous opportunities to iterate. Only after an idea proves it resonates should it be scaled into paid media or other expensive channels.
The company focuses on being present in potential customers' lives during the 95% of the year they aren't making a purchasing decision. This content-led approach, described as "a form of inception," builds brand affinity and ensures HubSpot is top-of-mind when the buying window finally opens.
During slow periods like the HVAC "shoulder season," customer search volume plummets. Pouring more money into digital ads is ineffective because the core issue is a lack of demand, not insufficient marketing reach. The focus must shift to operational tactics that generate demand, like outbound campaigns.
The momentum for a massive launch is built between campaigns. Callan Faulkner's team spent $200k/month on ads for smaller, evergreen offers in the months leading up to her $19.5M launch. This sustained marketing effort gathered crucial data on messaging and primed the audience for the main event.